Whinypaluza Wednesday: It's almost summer!

Hello everyone, happy Winey Palooza Wednesday!

No need to whine, it's Winey Palooza Wednesday. Have some wine and join us on the Winey Palooza Wednesday with the Green Family.

Cha-cha chicken!

Cheers! Happy Wednesday! Thank you, sweetness. Whoa, it's, it's a maze, it's a maze to get out of here. She's running away. Okay, hold this for a second. Stop what you're doing.

Yes, ma'am.

Hold this.

Holding this.

I gotta put stuff down. Putting stuff down because I want to show everyone.

Show everyone.

Oh my God, stop repeating me.

Oh my God, stop repeating me.

That was her.

Oh my gosh. So I want to start off, I want to show everyone my friend Kristen bought me the most perfect wine. Cat Catapalooza.

Catapalooza.

Ah, we're not gonna do this again. You're gonna do this. Can you go close for me?

Can you see? Why?

Catapalooza. Um, it's really good. Thank you, Kristen. Couldn't be more perfect for Winey Palooza. I got my birthday cup, Jen, and I got my wine from Kristen, and I'm all set. Thank you to our sponsors. How is everyone doing tonight? Um, we just dragged Lily in again. So, um, my topic this week is it's almost summer, and I had all of these topics in my head. Um, they're all coming. I had all these topics that I wanted to do, and I realized that there was something frustrating me and that, you know, it was over 8 years ago when I started writing Winey Palooza.

Wow, time flies.

So when Lily turns— no, in like another month it'll be 8 years. So Lily was like 10 months old.

We should have a Winey Palooza palooza, a party.

We have not had a Winey Palooza party yet, but we will.

We should go check out the— I go back through your blog and find the date of the first post.

So, oh, that's a great idea. That's a great idea, right? Yeah, you've got lots of great ideas. That's, that's how we got here.

Yes, many years, many different versions of here.

So I know, you know, I realize when I'm talking to my friends that my friends have no idea how many hours that I put into Winey Palooza. Like, everyone thinks that I'm, I'm just this stay-at-home mom. And quite frankly, oh man, you work so hard. Well, being a stay-at-home mom is hard enough. You all know that being a stay-at-home mom is like over full-time work. But, you know, add in some of you have full-time jobs. I have a part-time job, but I definitely put in hours. And my lovely husband, who now looks like my boyfriend, um, you're gonna have to answer some comments about that one in a minute, keeps giving me some ideas. So Seth is growing his hair and is growing his beard, and I told him that I'm loving it because I feel like I have this new boyfriend. And so, for your honey, so I need to mix it up.

You do not.

And I need to change it again. I was going to ask them for ideas. I thought about—

I thought I'd come up with something good.

I thought about going brunette, but you didn't like that idea.

You could do that naturally. You don't need to dye it. You could just wait.

So, okay, so let's get to my—

you're gonna dye your hair, pick a color, don't go natural.

Okay, boyfriend. Well, no, because talk their way to your boyfriend.

No, that's a husband comment.

So no, if I was to go brunette, it wouldn't be my natural mousy brown, it would be like brunette.

It says brown.

Okay, it doesn't excite him. So if you haven't seen that already, if you're doing something different, go different. Like what?

Oh no, not a color I've already seen.

I mean, okay, I mean, I could do red, but that doesn't excite me.

Well, I thought it was about me. I mean, if it's about you, that's different.

Does red excite you?

We could talk about it. Okay, everyone, match your fiery personality.

You think I'm fiery?

Would you like to survey the children?

I do not describe myself as fiery.

Okay, well, We can have another topic about that one.

I think that we will.

Okay.

I think we will. You think the children would define me as fiery?

Of the two of us, yes.

We're totally off topic. Let's—

we are.

Let's bring it back.

Hello!

Uh, yes, click the StreamYard link so we know who you are.

Okay, so—

or you can check, or they can click the link and make my life easier.

So my topic this week is it's almost summer. And the reason why, out of all of the topics swirling in my head, the reason why I picked this one is because 8 years ago, over 8 years ago—

Kristen, who's clapping for you.

I thought it was Kristen. Hi Kristen, thank you for the delicious wine, we love it. Yes, um, so thoughtful of you. Um, I started— I don't know, honey, I started this because I found parenting overwhelming. And one of my coping skills was to vent it out into— onto the laptop. So this is kind of what I did with this, this blog that is published, if you want to go read it, if you have not read it, is I kind of vented all of my— hello, Jennifer Calero is here. Hi, Jen.

Hi, Caleros.

I vented all of my frustration out into the blog and felt like I needed to do it because We are all feeling, all of you feel how I feel. I know I'm not alone.

You are not alone.

I am not alone. We are all feeling so done with the school year and with homework. Can I just tell you how much I dislike homework? So if you're a teacher and you don't agree with me that there should be no homework, I do think there should be no homework, by the way, but that's a whole nother conversation with my own reasons.

Yes.

But if you don't agree with me that there should be no homework, there should at least be no homework in June. And instead of toning down the homework, Max has actually gotten increased homework. And I'm like, okay, it's his last month of school, his last month of middle school, and he has a lot of homework. I'm like—

And a lot of soccer.

And a lot of soccer. He's like, my earth science teacher is giving me so much homework and I have all these soccer tournaments away. So, I just, I wish that at least June was a no homework month. I would love to see a no homework policy at schools, but again, I won't change the subject. So, Lilly is out gallivanting in the neighborhood on a daily basis, and we are happy for her. She is having a good time. But you know how it feels as her mother to pull her in at night and be like, you got to go to bed, you got to eat something, you got to do your homework. Now, she's learned that she has to do her homework before she leaves the house, but I just wish, you know, I felt bad. She was having a good time and again, I pulled her in. I'm like, it's light out longer and we're going to bed later and later and summer is—

Technically you shouldn't do that until school's actually over.

Well, we know how you feel.

Yes, the practical, rational, logical one.

Seth is definitely the practical one who is much better at following rules. One of my friends told me, some sort of rule, and I was like, I'm not the best rule follower.

It's so funny because I had a session with someone yesterday, uh, who was a peak performance coach and a psychologist who told me I was, uh, on her little scale, I was a renegade and a rule breaker. And I said, you should talk to my wife about that one.

It is 100% true. I think we're very similar.

Um, we break them in different areas.

We do, we do.

Um, I'm a renegade at work.

I talked to the name lady, the nameology lady. I got to interview her. It was amazing. And I got to learn about my name. And, you know, she was telling me that I don't like to be put in a box. I don't like to be told what to do. And you know what she said? Oh my God, wait until you hear this interview. She said that— you're gonna laugh— it's how you say something to me. So, so how many times have I told you that?

Every day of my life.

So she said, she said it to me. She's like, you don't like to be told what to do. You don't like to feel like you're being told what to do, but you know that I'll do anything if you ask me nicely. Yes, you know that. So, okay, let's go. Let's move on. I keep digressing tonight.

You're all— I'm totally out there.

I'm bringing myself back.

So, okay.

Focus. So I wanted to give all of us tips to get through June. And I was hoping, you know, it helped me to write out my list. So I was hoping if it helped me, it would help all of you.

Maybe you've got some suggestions.

Yes. So if you have suggestions for me, through the jungle, to help me get through June. I forgot that May was such madness.

May madness, June jungle.

And we've entered the June jungle. And it's like, Why every year am I surprised? We all know that this happens. If you read— if you go back and read any of my blogs from May and June, it's like the same, the same, just like September will be with little spins. And I think I learn more each year, so hopefully I'm adding more helpful content each year.

So what is your helpful content for our lovely viewers? Tell them what they've won.

Okay, so let's talk about tips to get through June. My number 1 tip is that I'm hearing the same story from teachers that I bump into or that I see posting, from parents that I talk to, from students that I talk to, so I don't feel alone. I know that we're all in the same boat and we all feel the same, so that helps me to just feel supported and get through it. That's number 1. Number 2, I want to just forewarn you that it is June— what's the date?

9th, right there on your computer screen.

Okay, it is June 9th. So my recommendation to you is that do not wait until the last week of school to check your children's assignments. My children seem to have my OCD tendencies to check to see that they've turned everything in. So no, 2 out of 3, we don't know, we don't know what Lily is going to be like. Like for middle school, you can check and see assignments. My recommendation to you is go check now and don't wait.

Right, don't have everything— do I figure out that you're missing 6 things on the last day of school?

I would just kind of like try to stay on top of it so that when it's the last week of school, you're actually like feeling caught up and done. Which leads me to the next thing, which is teacher gifts. And if you're like me, sometimes I can wait until too close to the end of school and then I'm scrambling to get gifts for a lot of teachers. So I would say start that now too and start thinking about who do I need gifts for, who do I want to give gifts for, and start thinking of ideas, which I actually have begun.

Otherwise there's going to be a run on Tim Hortons gift cards on the last day of school.

Well, and teachers, like, I feel so bad, you know, I'm giving— I shouldn't feel bad, but like I'm giving Starbucks, I'm giving Target, I'm giving Tim Hortons, Amazon. Like, I, I, I want to make the teachers happy. So if you have— if you are a teacher, give us guidance. Tell us what you want. Okay, make yourself some summer plans that will excite you, that will get you excited for the summer, and you will have something to look forward to. And I'm going to take my own advice, and I'm going to plan something fun for the summer.

Okay, we're planning something fun for the summer.

Is that okay? Of course it is. I figured you wouldn't care. I said to myself, and I will say to all of you, say yes to what is important. Do you have that on? You probably don't have that on because— um, okay, you know, it's okay if you don't. So we don't have to say yes to everything. I think that if you know me, I have become quite the podcast junkie and what that means is if I'm doing laundry, I'm probably listening to a podcast. If I'm driving my kids around, if they don't yell at me, I'm probably listening to a podcast and I'm hearing the same stuff from multiple therapists, psychologists, therapists, You know, all the people I listen to talk about what is important to you. Think about what your core values are. What do you want to be spending your days doing? What do you want to be spending your time doing? And what that looks like is not saying yes to everything. And what that also looks like is removing our guilt. First of all, June is crazy. Second of all, you all know there's a million things going on. Soccer, baseball, Girl Scouts, dance recitals. There is so much going on. And as parents, we may want to go to everything, but I'm going to tell you it's not possible to go to everything. And as much as I want to see Max play soccer every time he plays soccer, I can't. I have two other children who I have to drive to other things. And we're not going to give specific details due to safety reasons.

Sure.

But, you know, use your supports. Your supports are always going to help you through things. I have a dog sitter coming to help me with Tanner and my parents helping me with the girls so that I can go far away and see a soccer game. So, if there are things that you want to make happen, there are ways to make it happen, but we have to be choosy. We can't do everything and I have learned that and I would say that at the beginning of learning this, I still had a ton of guilt and that now I have learned that Max understands, my girls understand, I'm just gonna do my best and that's all we can do and we have to pick. And I'm trying to, you know, be fair to my 3 children and try to attend things for all of them. So I'm spreading myself out.

Some are easier than others because their activities do not occur in a performance setting as frequently as, say, a sport might.

Well, and you can't go to a soccer game every single week if you have other children.

Right, and there might not be a dance recital every single week. —right, time, more time to rehearse.

Well, and if there's one dance recital a year, we want to go to the one dance recital for the year. Yes. Um, my advice to you, you have about 2 weeks if you live near me, and if you don't live near me, we're going to talk about you in a minute. Um, do something for yourself. Kids Day was canceled. Um, I was rescheduled. Oh, I'm sorry, Kids Day was rescheduled, um, to next week. I was supposed to be at school on Tuesday, and I had blocked off the day to go to Kids Day, so I had some time, so I made myself a pedicure appointment. Um, self-care. Make yourself some me time before the children are home all the time. And then run away. Um, lastly, before we move on to summer tips, is take the pressure off. Take it off. Um, if you're one of those parents that thinks your kids have to shower every single day, or thinks that your kids can only have 30 minutes of screen time a day, My advice to you is it's June, it's the jungle, it's the jungle of June. Lower some expectations, change some expectations, take some pressure off. It'll help you get through June. So hopefully one of those tips will help you get through June. I know for me, just thinking about them and writing them down helps me feel better. And then I realized we only have like 2 more weeks left. We can do this, people. 10 days. We are almost there. School days. It's not 10 school days.

That's what Max said. Oh, 10 school days.

Oh, because next Friday they don't even have school. Okay, so there are so many people around me who have been done with school, and I am super jealous of you. In other states. In other states, in other counties, I think. Um, when you're starting in August to go back to school, I won't be jealous of you, but right now I'm jealous of you.

Back to school in August.

So that is one of my beefs, that we should be ending school this week because do you know how hot that school is? There is no air conditioning. And I came to school and asked one of the aides because I have to like wait in line to pick up Lily, and I'm like, how was it in there? And she was like, so hot. I mean, we're not built to be having school in hot weather. We're not. There's no AC. It's hot and they can't use fans. Do you know that? No, why can't you use fans? Because of COVID I think. You can't use— you can't even use a fan. Okay, so let's move on to summer tips. Yep. If you are already in summer or you are about to be in summer with me, which is my favorite time of the year and I'm super excited, I made some tips for us. Because summer is a whole different ball of wax and all of the children are going to be home. Okay, so I want to start with, and I'm talking to myself too, we do not have to entertain them all day long every day.

It is important for you to realize.

It is important for me to say it and I own it and I know it. And I even talked to a lady on my podcast, Tashi, who said that downtime and boredom will help them grow their imagination and will lead to better problem-solving skills later in life. So that was really good advice. Good advice.

Tell them that's right.

It's okay for them to be bored. It's okay to be bored. Don't you remember being bored? It's okay. The world won't end. It's not our job to entertain them 24 hours a day, and it's not our job to have friends over every day. Lily, do you hear me? You don't need to sign them up for every single camp. It will be okay. My, my two cents is have them each pick at least one camp or activity or thing, one thing that they really want to do this summer. I like to talk to my family about a summer wish list. It's not a summer bucket list, and I'm going to tell you why. I'm not a huge fan of the bucket list. I feel like the bucket list is like pressure, and it's probably me. It's probably me taking on the pressure. It's my fault. You might feel differently. It might like excite you and invigorate you. But for me, I like that each family member to pick one thing that they really want to do this summer, maybe one camp and maybe one activity. And I don't feel like I have to sign them up for everything under the sun. Um, I did sign Lily up for a lot, but she's the kid who needs to be busy. If you're working and you need your kids in camp, that's a whole different story. But, um, I just feel like when you make a bucket list, you feel like you have to check things off the list. And, um, I just like to like reduce— I guess I'm into reducing pressure. Do you like that? Yes, you impose a lot of pressure on yourself. Um, I used to make a bucket list, didn't I?

I don't know that I never— I don't recall you calling it that, but yes, there was a list. I didn't know it had a title.

I think that it's important to make some fun family plans. I will, I will have— I will probably have a summer meeting. They probably think my meetings are super lame, but I like to get my family together to talk about summer. What fun plans do you want for the summer? What trip ideas does everyone have? Is there something that you really wanted to do that I didn't sign you up for? And give me like a bucket list item that is your favorite thing that you really want to do. Like last year, Ella, I think Ella said, I really want dad to buy a movie screen for the backyard. And I really want to watch Hamilton with my friends. Which we did, which we— he purchased it and we completed her one thing that she asked for. Um, so I just— I— my advice is for us to just enjoy the summer as much as we can. It is only a couple of months, and if you live near me, you know that you never know how long the nice weather is going to last. So I'm gonna soak it up. I'm not gonna promise elaborate meals for the summer. I'm not gonna promise that I'm gonna keep up with cleaning, laundry, dishes as well as I normally do because to, to, to be authentic and real and honest, I wanna spend as much time as I can outside enjoying the sun. And I just want to recommend that you make yourself a nice drink and you put your feet up outside and you soak it up and you take as much pressure off of yourself this summer as you can. And, um, Don't forget that your friends understand. And when you need breaks, send your friend— send your kids to your friends' houses and get some me time as much as you can. Anything else that you want to add? I do not. I think you covered it. The June challenge. So I have a Whiny Pluza Mom group, if you don't know. The June challenge was a lot of fun. It was the I Am Enough challenge. And I forgot I wanted to show you all my keychain. But my very good friend Liz sent me a keychain about being enough, which came on Monday after such a hard day. And I was feeling so down and I was like, this is just so hard. And then I got this piece of mail and it just like gave me strength and gave me support and made me feel so happy. So Liz, it came at the most perfect time. Hi, Lisa. Lisa, I loved the cheerleading pictures that you posted. I have to go show Seth. Lisa and I cheerleaded together in high school, one of my very dear friends from high school who I miss so much, and she posted some really awesome pictures today. So I will show Seth when we are done. But my I Am Enough challenge was a lot of fun. The winner was Emily Stewart, and I went to go pick up her gift card yesterday, and the Salt Cave is closed on Tuesdays. You didn't call ahead. No, why would I think on a Tuesday that they're closed? So if you're listening, don't go— don't try to go to the Salt Cave on Tuesday. So Emily, I will get there tomorrow and I will get you your gift card and I will drop it off. And thank you everyone to who— everyone who took part in the June challenge. Thank you everyone for watching and listening and reading, and we appreciate your support. And I'm having so much fun bringing you Winey Palooza content, and it's helping me, so I hope that it's helping you.

Should we tell them about the podcast on Friday?

Um, no, because I didn't look it up.

Okay, there's a podcast on Friday. You should check it out. Do you remember?

Do you remember how I said I was gonna look it up before the— yes, vlog every week to tell them who my guest is? I'm gonna guess you're off. No pressure. No, I'm gonna really try to get into this routine. I'm gonna guess that it's Melissa and that we talked about organization. That is my guess. And it was great to talk to her because I don't know about you, but I need to— I always need to get more organized. So I loved her tips. I believe that's who I got to speak to, and that airs this Friday morning at 9 AM. So we need Lily. Lily, can you come and close us out, baby? She's coming. It's like this side, this way, so she doesn't have to climb over the wires. I'm gonna go this way and I'm gonna have her come. Hurry up, they're waiting for you. Close us out, baby.

Thank you for watching Winey Blues on Wednesday with the Green Family. Cha-cha chicken!

Thanks everyone, have a wonderful week. Bye everybody!